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Tire Recall System Defective, Says NTSB

The nationwide network we rely on to recall potentially defective and
dangerous car and truck tires isn’t working, according to the National
Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Robert Malloy, senior staff officer with
the NTSB put it simply: the system is “completely broken.”

Why this is important? Well, when was the last time you had to get defective
tires swapped out? In all likelihood, you haven’t, but that doesn’t necessarily
mean they are safe. It might just mean that you don’t have any way of knowing
whether or not your tires are in safe condition.

For tire expert Sean Kane, this not knowing is at the heart of the problem.
According to Kane, there isn’t enough information out there for consumers to
know even the simplest details about the tires they purchase. Without knowing
even the simplest of details—like a tire’s age—it’s impossible to know whether
or not a tire is defective.

Tire Dealers Don’t Have to Register Tires With Manufacturers

Independent dealers are responsible for selling roughly 92 percent of all
tires in this country. These dealers aren’t owned or controlled by tire manufacturers.

One of the reasons the tire recall system is defective is because these
independent retailers are not obligated to register the tires they sell with
the manufacturers. So when a manufacturer is compelled to issue important
safety information about one of its tires, the company has no idea who to
contact.

Between 2009 and 2013, there were 55 tire recall campaigns involving roughly
3.2 million tires.

According to data from the NTSB tire recall report, only 20
percent of tires affected by a recall are returned to the manufacturer. Another
24 percent of tires that were the subject of a recall are taken off the road
for other reasons, like normal wear or damage. But this means that just over
half (56 percent) of all the tires that were recalled could still be in use. We
are talking millions of defective tires on our highways…still wondering why
this is such an important safety issue?

The recall numbers are in stark contrast to the 78 percent of vehicles that
actually get serviced after a recall is issued. In other words, when a
defective car gets recalled, people are able to get the information quickly and
get the affected vehicle fixed.

The reason for the higher rate may have something to do with the recall
system for cars and trucks. If you go to the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration’s (NHTSA) website,
you can enter your vehicle identification number and within seconds, you can
see if your vehicle is the subject of a recall. At present, there is no system
like this for tires, even though conservative estimates show that hundreds of
people die every year in accidents that are at least in part related to tire
issues.

The Effects of Having Defective Tires on America’s Highways

In February 2014, NTSB officials investigated two fatal tire-related crashes
in which tread separation occurred (when a tire tread separates from its body,
the risk of blowout or crash greatly increases). The first crash, in
Centerville, Louisiana, involved a sport utility vehicle (SUV) and a school
bus. The SUV was heading west on U.S. Highway 90 when its left rear tire blew
after tread separation. Four people were killed. A number of students on the
bus sustained injuries.

The second crash happened in Lake City, Florida, and involved a 15-passenger
van filled with three adults and seven children. The van was heading northbound
on Interstate 75 when its left rear tire experienced a complete tread
separation. The driver lost control of the vehicle, which overturned along
I-75. Two people were killed and eight were injured. The victims were all from
First Baptist Church in New Port Richey traveling to a religious retreat.

NTSB officials said the driver of
the van, 52-year-old Jeff Nowak, thought there was an issue with the tire prior
to the accident. He inspected it but was unable to find a problem, so he kept
driving. Unfortunately, the defect was inside the tire and not visible.

Worse yet, the defective tire had been recalled over a year prior to the
accident, but hadn't been registered with the manufacturer. According to CBS News, the tire manufacturer took extra
steps to determine who purchased the tire, but the recall notice ended up being
sent to an outdated address.

The NTSB conducted limited investigations into two other 2014 fatal crashes caused at least in part by tire failure—one involved a pickup truck that sustained tread separation on the left front tire in Eloy, Arizona. The other accident involved an SUV that blew its right rear tire in Patterson, California. All told 12 people were killed as a result of these accidents, and 42 people sustained injuries.

Tire Problems and Highway Deaths

On an annual basis, the NTSB estimates that tire-initiated accidents are at
least in part responsible for between 400 and 500 deaths every year. This
includes accidents stemming from tires that are defective, under-inflated or
punctured. It isn’t possible to know exactly how many deaths are directly
attributable to defective tires that have been subjected to recalls. This is in
large part because law enforcement officials are not looking for this
information when they conduct an investigation.

The Rubber Manufacturers Association, the national trade association for
tire manufacturers, disputes the NTSB’s annual death estimate. The trade
association says that approximately 200 fatalities occur per year in
tire-related accidents.

Either way, that is a lot of deaths on our highways every year, and it
doesn’t take an expert to see that many of the deaths involving defective tires
could be prevented if our national tire recall system performed better.

So, What Happens Now?

The NTSB report didn’t pull any punches; there is plenty of blame to go
around, from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s poor tire
recall website, to the manufacturers themselves making it difficult for
consumers to appropriately respond to any recall.

Here are the NTSB’s recommendations concerning the tire recall system:

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